Berkeley and I only got to go camping twice this summer. Normally, I really love camping. I always have, but some things have changed. To start, I was always just a passenger along for the trip, so I only had to worry about my own stuff. Now that I have acquired the title MOM and WIFE, I have also acquired the responsibility of packing everything! Who knew camping required so much crap!? Food, bedding, tents, cooking and eating equipment, Asa's necessities (which aren't few), etc... It's like it takes a whole day to prepare for one night out of camping. I coped with the packing both times and managed to retain my excitement for the trip until... TRIP 1: got to the campsite, set up tent and unloaded stuff from car only to find that we had forgotten our sleeping pads and pillows. I don't sleep great ON the freaking pad, so a night on the freezing ground with nothing but my sleeping bad and a bunch of clothes under me was sheer awfulness. Asa woke up unwilling to be calmed and we ended up spending half of the night in the car. Asa and Berkeley crashed out, as Asa had a carseat and Berkeley can sleep anywhere. Not me. I was awake and totally ticked off all night. That takes us to camping trip #2. This time it was our ward's campout and the letter they sent home with us said that we would be in cabins with bunks and reminded us to bring bedding. We packed up Asa's pack-n-play, sleeping bags, pillow and a couple extra blankets. I was more than willing and even excited to go camping knowing that we would be on beds with mattresses. The drive to Heber Valley was gorgeous and we were all in good spirits. We pulled up to our cabins, unloaded our stuff, opened the door to the cabins to find the promised bunks but WITH NO MATTRESSES AT ALL! Nothing but slabs of wood! I immediately wanted to cry. We brought no sleeping pads again and the drive there was like an hour and 15 minutes. Berkeley assured me that we should be better than last time because we were in a warm cabin and we had brought extra blankets for padding under our sleeping bags and we had pillows. My entire prayer before going to bed was that I would able to sleep decently and not be a total grouch. I guess it's true that the Lord doesn't answer some of the trivial prayers because the night was a holy terror! We were in one of those group cabins so lots of families were in this one big room with us. We took Asa on a drive and he fell asleep and transferred to his pack-n-play great and then we got in bed. Needless to say, I slept horribly after the first 5 minutes on. Asa woke up freaking out at around 1:45 and would not be consoled. Worried about waking or keeping everyone else up, we again made our way to the car. After driving for a bit and parking and trying to sleep for another 40 minutes, we finally decided to go home. We packed all our crap back in the car and made the drive home at 2:45 in the morning. We didn't get home until close to 4, but my own bed has never felt better in my whole life. We all crashed out and didn't wake up until Asa did at 8:30. Needless to say, I have NO desire to go camping again anytime soon.
